Monday, April 11, 2011

Easter things to do

We have some special things planned this year.
I was baptized as an infant in the Catholic church and am choosing to be baptized hopefully this Wednesday in our new church, if everyone is feeling up to snuff. My little ones have been down with a cold and I really don't want to do it without them there as a part of it. My Pastor is doing a private baptism for us. I believe my brother and Bry (my husband have also decided they would like to be baptized as well). It's a full submersion and it's still a bit cold here so I'm hoping I don't scream as I enter the water for this special event, gosh that would be so embarrassing. So this will be a very special day for all of us, me screaming or not LOL : )

Easter Reading: The Cross in the Egg by Shirley Taylor (This book is a great way to tie in the Easter bunny and the true meaning of Easter. A very lovely story.)
We also have the book and set of Resurrection Eggs on the way. (from www.christianbook.com)

In the Easter baskets this year:
Each of the kids will have a few organic lollipops from Trader Joes and licorice that is corn syrup free and some gummies from Trader Joes. My Mom is sending us some wholesome family treats to enjoy also, verses having any more candy. My kids don't really eat much candy and it's something we just end up throwing out. We are hiding eggs out back that are filled with non candy items, like stickers, pencil erasers and things of that nature. But I didn't want to do much in the way of candy so tried to keep to things the kids can use and that some of the things can be tied to the celebration of Jesus.

These are a copy and paste from Sue Patrick's workbox email and the ideas are some pretty neat ones about things you can do with those plastic Easter eggs that can be picked up cheaply (just watch for lead, as there was a bit recall I think last year because of the lead in some of these):

For little ones, just opening them and putting them together works on fine motor skills and sequencing. For children of all ages, they can be used for enrichment activities in all subjects. Here are few ideas:

Chores: Have a set color for each child (ex: Joey is always blue, Mark is always green). The children hunt for an egg in each room. When they find it and open it, it has a chore to be done in it for that room.

Preschool Workboxes: Put many different color eggs with parts separated in a Workbox. The child finds the matching halves and puts them together in a "finished" egg carton. Expand this by having them place the color word in the egg once they match it. In the beginning the color word will also be printed in that color of ink (the yellow egg color will be printed in yellow ink). Expand by having only black ink color words.

Elementary Age Workboxes: Fill each egg with different items (penny, toothpick, rice, rubber band, etc). Label the bottom of each depression of an egg carton with that item and the child shakes each egg trying to tell from the sound what item is in the egg. He sorts them by sound onto the appropriate label. He then gets to open them to see if he was right.

Middle School Workboxes/Center: Timeline events--label each egg with an event or date. The child sorts them in order if listed by event or if the date is written on them, place the matching event on a label in the depression of a an egg carton. He sorts the eggs onto the correct even. You can also play a game of throwing the eggs to them and when they catch it and look at the information, they have a certain period of time to tell you everything they know about that event. Ex: The egg has "underground railroad" on it. You throw it to them and they have one minute to tell you when, where and why for the underground railroad. This is particularly fun with multiple children.

High School Workboxes/Center: Use them as a visuals when working on planning for big projects or literature assignments.

No comments:

***DISCLAIMER***Any posts about "curriculum" are all from before we came to unschooling.

Our school days look just like a day of summer vacation, a day of living life joyfully as a family.

What you won't find in our house:

No parent mandated chores - instead chores that kids agree to do as part of the household. No punishments. - instead we talk and discuss. No "school work" really of any kind. No curriculum. No clear your plate club at meal time. - Our kids really have great on off switches for when their hungry and when they are not. No parents make the rules kids follow kind of thing. - We as parents are not perfect people and we discuss with the kids. We are not infallible and are always open to discussion. No set schedule of when my kids can do what unless it's about sleeping and then they do have to be considerate of anyone asleep of course. No food controls. No limits on when they can game, watch TV or use the internet.

What you will find:Lots of learning all the time. Tons of consideration, kindness and empathy from kids to parents and parents to kids. Respectful kids. Respectful parents. Lots of laughter and fun. Prayers (we are quite a prayerful bunch)Lots of music. A helpful attitude. Love.

Christmas 2015

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"To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world." ~author unknown~

Please feel free to drop me a line.

My husband, is a true hero and the one who makes it possible for me to be a homeschooling Mom. Thanks babe!

"The founding fathers in their wisdom decided that children were an unnatural strain on parents. So they provided jails called schools, equipped with tortures called education. School is where you go between when your parents can't take you and industry can't take you."

Unschooling blogs I recommend

"Children do not need to be made to learn about the world, or shown how. They want to, and they know how." --John Holt

"Little children love the world. That is why they are so good at learning about it. For it is love, not tricks and techniques of thought, that lies at the heart of all true learning. Can we bring ourselves to let children learn and grow through that love?"

--John Holt

A quote by Sandra Dodd

ANY mention of unschooling in the presence of school-at-homers is taken as criticism, and that will be true forever.To suggest, in the presence of people who are making their children do schoolwork, that schoolwork is a) not necessary and b) harmful is considered (by them) to be somewhere between storming their house from above, and undermining it from below.

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